In today's business society, customer relations and customer satisfaction are critical for successful and profitable operations. Customers are purchasing various products and services from a variety of providers and using various purchase means. Some customers may make their purchases in person, while others may do so over the telephone. Additionally, the increased use of the Internet as a transaction venue has increased the number of customers who make purchases online.
When customers purchase various products and services, they often have questions, concerns, or complaints that relate to their purchases. For example, a customer who has purchased a printer may have questions about how to use certain printing features, or may submit a complaint regarding a problem with their printer. A customer who has purchased service connectivity from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) may have questions about pricing options, or may have complaints concerning modem connectivity. To maximize customer satisfaction, businesses must be capable of responding quickly and effectively to customer questions, concerns, or complaints.
Many businesses employ customer care agents who are responsible for interacting with customers. These agents may interact with customers personally or over the telephone. More recently, many customer care agents engage in interactive chat sessions with customers over the Internet. These chat sessions allow agents to communicate quickly and easily with customers all over the world.
When such agents interact with customers, they often need to be able to address a wide variety of questions and provide detailed and effective answers. To do so, the agents often require additional information and/or assistance. As customer care centers have evolved, more and more customer care agents have been able to utilize on-line repositories for obtaining information. These repositories often contain valuable information relating to products and services. This information provides the agents with a means to assist their customers and provide valuable feedback.
Many of these repositories, however, contain an abundance of information. Often, customer care agents have a very difficult time sifting through these repositories to find the most pertinent and valuable information. In addition, in those situations in which businesses allow customers to directly search the repositories for answering their questions and concerns, the same issues arise—customers often cannot find what they want or the solutions they need.